Kevin Mullan

Published:21:00Friday 15 June 2018

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Derry-based filmmaker Eileen Walsh and comic Rory McSwiggan will join a host of acclaimed international acts, including Fever Ray, Chronixx, Iron and Wine, Tommy Tiernan, James Holden, John Hopkins and Pantha Du Prince, at one of Ireland’s most popular arts festivals this summer.

In something of a coup for the duo they’ve been asked to bring ‘The Hip Hop Comedy Game Show’ - created by Eileen and starring Rory aka Dr. Hip Hop to Body&Soul, which takes place over the summer solstice weekend at Ballinlough Castle in Co. Westmeath.

“I have been commissioned to run ‘The Hip Hop Comedy Gameshow’ at the Body&Soul Festival on Friday, June 22. We have got a primetime slot in the Bulmer’s Lounge so I am now counting the days before it happens,” said Eileen.

The show, described as “quirky, surreal and side-splittingly funny’’ takes audiences on a journey in empathy via the world of Hip Hop. Audiences get to play ‘The Hip Hop Empathy Quiz’ and then later on, ‘Hip Hop Bingo.’

“It’s an interactive and constantly evolving gameshow and I have built it with the help of the people in Derry. I have given out hundreds of questionnaires to people in the city of all ages and backgrounds. I am interested in examining some of the stereotypes people have about rap and hip hop artists and their music and what people actually know about it,” she said.

“Some of the questions might be for example to name a brand of trainers associated with hip hop or to name a famous rapper. Other questions might be to name an issue that artists are likely to rap about or to name a word used by rappers to describe women in their songs. It’s fun, but there’s a serious side as well.”

Rory and Eileen will be brushing shoulders with the likes of anarchic Dundalk punk poet Jink Lennon and Belfast Irish language rappers Kneecap in the Bulmer’s Lounge, while Tommy Tiernan is also among those included on the Body &Soul bill.